Urban Waste Recycling
The Beginnings of Waste The typical American produces approximately 4 pounds of waste each day. At the same time, the number of landfills is decreasing; therefore, urban waste recycling is an important part of ecology to understand our environment. Waste disposal became an important feature to the environment with the Industrial Revolution and within this system; larger cities were organized near rivers, which served as dumps. This system did not work and was detrimental to the environment so in 1980, the integrated waste management system (IWM) was established. This waste system focused on recycling as a means of waste control. 1 In urban areas, where space is limited and populations continue to grow, waste is a significant issue that must be acknowledged. What is Waste? Urban waste recycling focuses on several different practices: waste collection, recycling, composting, and their sustainability. 2 Wastes include the typical garbage collection and hazardous wastes. Recycling is glass and plastics, paper and paper stuff collection. Composting is the collection of food and organic wastes. In the U.S., the majority of our waste comes from livestock and the handling of ore minerals (77%), followed by crop waste (14%), then municipalities (5%) and finally industrial waste (3%).1 From these numbers, agriculture and mining are the greatest sources of waste and in the Midwest much of our waste is due to our agricultural work. How to improve waste recycling in urban areas There are many different methodologies being employed to support and encourage waste recycling. In New York there are Community Advisory Boards and in Indiana, outreach mascots. Other efforts include social marketing and incentives. 3 There are also several ways to calculate and determine how waste effects the environment. The Waste Reduction Model (WARM) considers the greenhouse gas emissions from different waste collection areas: landfills, recycling, composting and the like. Other tools include the Recycled Content Tool, ReCon, and the Durable Goods Calculator, DGC. 3 The U.S. only recycles 20% of its solid waste, and of that 20%, the Midwest has the smallest population of residents served by curbside recycling. 1 Programs like the Midwestern Regional Council work to provide curbside pick-up for ease in recycling and landfill collection. 3 Other organizations make it easy to find pick-up options near you. Waste Management offers waste, recycling, yard, hazardous material and food and organic waste pick-up and allows for users to find services in their area.4 Other efforts include reduction in plastic bottle use of materials and the packaging of goods using less material. 1 Interestingly, breweries across the Midwest are also participating in urban waste recycling by collecting their grain byproducts and sending their waste to farmers nearby as feed for their animals. 6 Sustainability With the volume of waste increasing 7% each year, sustainability becomes an important topic for urban waste. 7 One of the major ways of making waste a sustainable practice is by reducing, reusing and recycling materials. To reduce waste it is essential to not create it. Reusing our materials is one of the best ways to do this. Reducing and reusing is economically stable and saves money while preventing pollution by decreasing the need and production for new products and materials. Recycling, collecting and processing materials that are otherwise thrown away and creating new products form their materials, are important and also reduces the amount of waste produced. Similar to the benefits of reducing and reusing, raw materials are saved by using ones already in existence. 8 It is important to recognize the amounts of waste in urban areas and in the Midwest to better approach our trashes and work towards more sustainability practices. Sources 1. http://people.hws.edu/halfman/Data/PublicInterestArticles/Landfills.pdf 2. 2. http://www.pca.state.mn.us/index.php/topics/preventing-waste-and-pollution/index.html 3. 3. http://www.epa.gov/region5/waste/solidwaste/forums/murf2008/02gevrenov.pdf 4. 4. http://www.midwestern.nsw.gov.au/Waste--Water-Services/Wastemanagementfacilities/ 5. 5. http://www.wm.com/residential/curbside-waste-pickup.jsp 6. 6. https://www.brewersassociation.org/attachments/0001/1529/Sustainability_Manual_Solid_waste.pdf 7. 7. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/waste-built-environment-sustainable-cities 8. 8. http://www2.epa.gov/recycle